Kina has the sort of extraordinary precision in her senses that you often forget children must have. In recent issues of The Daily Kina, we’ve covered her heightened sense of smell, but it’s true of her hearing as well. Both Laurea and I spent much of our teens and twenties abusing our ears, and so we cannot hear the sorts of subtle buzzing and whispers that Kina can—which often leads to creepy exchanges in the evening, in which Kina will call out from her bedroom things like, “What is that whispering!?” or “What was that noise?!”

A few weeks ago, it started out as “I don’t like that ticktick sound!” I went into her bedroom and spent a few minutes listening for any ticking—to no avail. I went back into the living room. A few minutes later, “I don’t like the ticking! Make the ticking stop, Daddy!” Same routine—didn’t hear anything at all, felt slightly eerie. Finally, after a third call for aid, I put my ear up to the air filter in her room and heard the very quiet oscillation of a misaligned fan. I jiggled the filter, made the ticking stop, off to bed. Each night for the next week, we went through the same routine, until I finally gave up and disassembled the filter to check for any loose screws. Given my limited experience as a handyman, I made it worse, and we’ve since had to replace it. This was great until we turned on her humidifier for the first time tonight, which has led to several visits to investigate a subtle burbling. It’s like living with Spider-Man.

Maybe air quality’s not that important after all.

dad